Technical Field
The present invention relates to a pharmaceutical composition for preventing or treating a fracture or osteoporosis, which contains, as an active ingredient, the slit or robo gene or a protein expressed by the gene, to a kit for predicting the risk of the occurrence of a fracture or osteoporosis using the gene or the protein expressed by the gene, and to a method of providing information for predicting the risk of the occurrence of a fracture or osteoporosis.
Background Art
Osteoporosis refers to a condition in which bone mineral density has been reduced due to an excessive decrease in the quantity of minerals and substrates that form bones. Osteoporosis makes bones susceptible to a fracture. Accordingly, osteoporosis is the most frequently occurring metabolic bone disease (MBD) that exhibits a low bone mineral density (BMD) and an increased risk of a fracture (Peacock, M., et al., Endocr. Rev. 23: 303-326, 2002; Akhter, M. P., et al., Bone. 41(1): 111-6, 2007). Recently, there has been a rapidly increasing number of patients hospitalized due to general osteoporotic fractures of the hip, the spine and the wrist (Fogarty, P., et al., Maturitas. 52 Suppl 1: S3-6, 2005; Palacios, S., et al., Maturitas. 15; 52 Suppl 1: S53-60. Review, 2005). In particular, osteoporosis frequently develops after menopause in women above the age of 40, and senile osteoporosis occurs in men and women above the age of 70.
Currently, osteoporosis is diagnosed by physical methods, such as X-ray scanning, but such methods disadvantageously require large diagnostic devices and are problematic in terms of safety due to the use of X-rays. In addition, such methods have shortcomings in that they cannot predict further reductions in bone mineral density, and it is difficult to accurately predict the risk of osteoporotic fracture based on bone mineral density alone.
Accordingly, it is necessary to establish a rapid, simple and accurate method that can provide early detection and diagnosis of various types of osteoporosis, such as postmenopausal osteoporosis and senile osteoporosis, and that can predict the risk of a fracture, thus making it possible to effectively treat osteoporosis or a fracture.
Therefore, the present inventors have conducted studies in order to develop an agent for treating a fracture or osteoporosis and to develop a marker for predicting the risk of the occurrence of a fracture or osteoporosis, and, as a result, have found that slit3 increases bone formation and reduces bone resorption in cells and animal models, and has a negative correlation with the incidence of osteoporosis, thereby completing the present invention.